Julia Gillard: profile

Julia Eileen Gillard, Australia's first female prime minister, is considered a consummate political performer.

Trusted with two high profile portfolios - workplace relations and education - while working as deputy prime minister, Ms Gillard impressed the public, her political colleagues and departmental chiefs with her ability to juggle responsibilities and still deliver.

In parliament she is feisty and self-assured, a combination that has made her an extremely successful frontbencher. Unlike her predecessor Kevin Rudd, she is a talented communicator, warm and natural in front of the cameras.

But her rise to the become the most powerful woman in Australia has not been easy.

During the 1990s, Ms Gillard sought preselection for Labour seats three times and was rejected. She changed tack, working for John Brumby, who was then the Victorian state opposition leader. But her ambitions to move to Canberra did not fade and in 1998 her persistence and determination paid off when she became the Labour member for the outer western Melbourne seat of Lalor.

In her maiden speech, Ms Gillard, 48, said that she identified with the local community, made up of families on low incomes who were characterised by a fighting spirit.

Fighting off criticism of her broad Australian accent and concerns from conservative quarters that she was unmarried with no children, she developed a reputation for professionalism and competancy. Fiercely loyal, she controversially remained friends with disgraced labour leader Mark Latham after he publicly criticised colleagues.

But she was not afraid to get her hands dirty. In 2006 she joined with Kevin Rudd to wrest the leadership of the party from Kim Beazley.

The "marriage of convenience", as it was dubbed at the time, delivered the Labour Party a win at the 2007 election, ending 11 years of Liberal rule.

The victory also handed Ms Gillard the deputy prime ministership, a role which she excelled in.

As Mr Rudd's fortunes waned, Ms Gillard continued to perform, winning a fight with the teachers' union and securing fans from all corners of politics. Soon the leadership questions began.

In May, Peter Beattie, the former Queensland premier, said that Ms Gillard would make a "brilliant" prime minister.

Mr Rudd was unfazed, saying that his deputy would make a fantastic prime minister "one day". That day has arrived faster than he could have imagined.

Julia Gillard was born in Barry, Wales, to a family that hailed from the coal fields.

Her parents took the family to Australia as "Ten Pound Poms" in 1966, when Ms Gillard was four, but the effect of her early years in Britain remained, and she has named Nye Bevan, the former Welsh Labour leader, as one of her political heroes.

After settling in the southern city of Adelaide, Ms Gillard excelled at school, where she was unafraid to challenge the status quo. At secondary school she led a delegation of students against a physics teacher whose classes favoured male students.

She went on to study arts and law at Adelaide University, where she became a prominent figure in campus politics, aligning herself with the Labour Left and rising to become president of the Australian Union of Students.

After university she developed a distinguished career with law firm Slater & Gordon, where she worked on industrial relations, winning friends and allies in the country's powerful union movements.

It was those alliances that helped her secure enough support to win the leadership from Mr Rudd.

It is yet to be seen whether she can live up to the expectations that have been heaped on her. As well as reuniting a party badly damaged by the political violence of the past 24 hours, she must win over voters who have become disenchanted by Mr Rudd.

As well as being the first female prime minister, she is also Australia's first non-married leader. Ms Gillard is in a long-term relationship with Melbourne hairdresser Tim Mathieson.